chick vs chicken feed

we have 5 chicks almost 8 weeks old. How long can I feed them the "baby food"???? As far as I can tell, it seems similar to the other food just crackled up and higher in protein....I thought they would eat alot more than they did and now that they are outside they eat very little feed at all - getting their fill from the forest. they are not free range but we have a 20 x 34 run so each chicken has over a 100sqft of personal outdoor run space. I doubt the free food will last forever but it is an old dog run in forest been unkept for a good 20 years,...so lots a forest debris, critters and what not for them to sift through.

You can feed them chick feed as long as you would like. Once they begin laying you will need to supplement them with some calcium. But until then chick feed has everything a chicken needs. I do prefer the pellets for older birds, it is just less waste, less easy to kick and spill out.
Do not feed your birds layer feed until they begin to lay eggs. Layer feed has the extra calcium, which laying birds need very much but growing birds do not need at all.

Thank You! Mentioning waste, I noticed a lot of it when I was using the little "tractor supply" chick feeder. I researched many different feeders out there. We have rodent galore up here in the rockys (Colorado should of never got rid of the wolf) and I don.t want to feed the mice and what not. I found the 5-gallon feeder with a pvc elbow and there is no spilling no food on floor! I noticed many people use the pvc feeders, which can be easily adapted to the bucket feeder, if you have a lot chickens. here is what i made with 4" PVC Elbow and 5gallon bucket, there would be enough room to have two holes per bucket, with 5 chickens I just need the one.
this way the chickens eat from within the bucket, while smaller its cute to watch em walk in with just their little tails sticking out and again that keeps poop out of the food aswell